Istanbul / AFP Turkey’s week-old cross-border offensive in Syria could become a drawn-out affair that stokes tensions with Washington if Ankara continues to take the fight to US-backed Kurdish fighters, analysts say. Turkey says its unprecedented operation aims to rid the border of both the IS group and the anti-IS Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist group. ...

  London / AFP United Nations aid contracts worth tens of millions of dollars have gone to people closely associated with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad despite US and EU sanctions, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. The newspaper’s analysis of hundreds of UN contracts granted since the Syrian conflict began in 2011 showed many awarded “to companies run by or linked to ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday called criticism of Israeli settlement building “absurd” after a UN envoy strongly hit out at his government over the issue. “The claim that it is illegal for Jews to build in Jerusalem is as absurd as saying Americans can’t build in Washington or the French can’t build in Paris,” Netanyahu ...